Mischief In Patagonia, by H. W. Tilman. Cambridge University Press, 1957. 185 pages; 16 pages of photographs; 2 maps. Price $3.75.

In Mischief In Patagonia, Mr. Tilman has sandwiched his account of crossing the Patagonian Ice Cap, in December 1955 and January 1956, from Peel Inlet to Lake Argentino and back between those of his voyages in the English pilot cutter, Mischief, from England through the Straits of Magellan to Peel Inlet and the return trip completing the circumnavigation of South America, thence back to England. The account of the Ice Cap crossing appears in brief but pertinent part in AAJ 1957.

Mr. Tilman, Major E. H. Marriott an experienced English climber, and Mr. Jorge Quinteros a Chilean climber, made up the ice cap party, leaving three others to act as ship keepers—no mean task as events proved —while the climbing party was on its trip. The climbers ascended the Calvo Glacier snout from a small beach on the northerly side of Calvo Fjord, thence up the glacier to Cervantes Ridge and down East Bismarck Glacier to the westerly side of Lake Argentino. Contrary to expectation, the party had a fair share of good weather, and despite Mr. Quinteros’ frost-bitten feet, made the sixty-odd mile trip in the scheduled six weeks. While the ice cap crossing takes a mere thirty pages, it is clear that Mr. Tilman’s new-found love of the sea has not dampened his ardor for first class mountaineering exploration.

The account of the voyages out from England and return suggest the author is a venturesome and resourceful, if not skillful, yachtman, whose spirit is much in the tradition of Lord Dufferin (Letters From High Latitudes), and perhaps more, of Harry Pidgeon (Around the World Single Handed), who also took to the sea in his middle years.

Mr. Tilman’s lucid and amusing style of writing is refreshing in an age when the fashion in accounts tends to be purely factual. Frequent authoritative references to preceding voyages and to the historical backgrounds of many sailor’s phrases which are commonly and indiscriminately used makes the book pleasant fare for the seagoing bibliophile. It would be rash to say that Mr. Tilman has produced his best book in Mischief in Patagonia, but it would seem reasonable to say that the adventure was worthy of the performer and that its chronicler has lost none of his cunning in its telling.

It is interesting that a climber in what now may seem to some to be the older tradition should add a new trick to his bag. Perhaps part of the answer is to be found in Mr. Tilman’s statement that “the mountaineer usually accepts the challenge on his own terms, whereas once at sea the sailor has no say in the matter and in consequence may suffer more often the salutary and humbling emotion of fear.”

It is exhilarating to read of an adventure such as this in which a relish for experiencing strong human emotion is more important than precisely measuring the degree of difference between a meticulously made plan and its consummation.

John H. Ross